– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — It is a good thing that Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer sees a lot for his team to work on, given that all the rest of us are seeing from the team are a lot of victories and a team that’s hitting its stride at the perfect point of the season.
Captain Jaime Benn scored twice as the Stars scored four unanswered goals after falling behind to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 inside American Airlines Center on Friday evening. Joe Pavelski and Sam Steel also scored for the Stars, who have won eight of their last 10 games to move into a tie for first place in the Central Division with the Colorado Avalanche with 11 games remaining.
Jake Oettinger only had to make 20 saves for Dallas, but made a crucial stop on a 2-on-1 to deny Rickard Rakell from point-blank range at the 6:20 mark of the second period to preserve a 3-1 lead. That play, as well as others, are enough for DeBoer to be rankled enough to make sure his team stays grounded despite the great run of form.
“I like how we’re playing. You know, the coach is never happy. There’s always moments and spurts in the game where you think you can play better,” DeBoer said. “Other than the New Jersey game, which stood out as an outlier to me and was probably our scheduling and fatigue catching up to us, I’ve liked our game. Even the games that we haven’t won – the Florida game, as an example – we’re playing some solid hockey.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s contest, with photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 28 pictures in total.
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